In man's evolution he has created the cities and
the motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance
and I'd be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle

Thurston County mail is now routed through Tacoma before returning to South Sound for delivery. We've been discussing the lead up to this fact off and on here on OlyBlog, Rick has a post of more information.

Okay. I put in a change of address form here in Olympia for Olympia early this month. I mistakenly did not sign my name properly on form (I printed but did not sign) and the card needed to be sent back to me as incomplete. I understand.

The post card is stamped Tacoma - Olympia WA 983 10 OCT 2006. It arrived today - October 27.

17 days to get this from Tacoma to Olympia?

USPS does have an official change of address form site on the web. It requires a $1 fee taken out of credit or debit card account to verify identity. Not really user friendly, though I do understand that some sort of system needs to be in place to prevent pranksters from randomly changing everyone's addresses around.

But I still cannot get over that 17 days lag time. I've signed the form and am sending it back to Tacoma, I've also done a change of address online. Word to the wise, if you are changing address, start early, and maybe offer to drive the form from Tacoma back to Oly yourself.

This week, other than stormwater and some capital facilities stuff (which is very important, mind you) it is all about the budget. As always this is the "What's on the city council's plate this week" review.

Budget is so important, pretty much the big thing the council does all year. So here is the lineup:

The actual budget document will be available and presented Monday, October 30. The budget will be available on the City’s website www.ci.olympia.wa.us by Wednesday afternoon November 1st. The schedule for budget review is:

Monday, November 6 Study Session
Tuesday, November 14 Public Hearing
Tuesday, November 21 Study Session
Tuesday, November 28 Study Session, Final Budget Balancing
Monday, December 4 Adoption (First Reading)

Following presentation of the budget, the document will be available for review in the City Clerk’s office.

Also there is a Staff Open House on the Budget scheduled for November 2 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. Senior staff members will be available at that time to answers budget related questions from the public.

ANALYSIS AND OPTIONS:

The 2007 budget is up 7.3% over the 2006 budget. The preliminary budget was prepared based on guidance provided by the Council’s Constrained Prioritization process, and the principal and guidelines of the long term financial strategy (LTFS). The total budget has increased by $2.5 million. The budget does include utility rate increases in water, waste water, stormwater and solid waste drop box rates.

The LTFS requires us to set priorities, protect our reserves, recover costs, invest in our employees, maintain core services and always look for efficiencies in the way we do business. As we review the budget during the coming month, the LTFS and the Constrained Prioritization can guide us in these uncertain economic times.

Earlier this year, the Olympia City Council announced that it would begin a citizen's Ad Hoc Budget Committee, a group of citizens that from late 2006 to 2007 start a process of writing a budget (I think) from a citizens point of view. More here.

Go outside.

Walk through a park, a neighborhood, any place that enlivens you.

Breathe.

Music on iPod and gazing at flame orange maple trees optional, but advised.

Repeat as desired.

....brought to you by the Good Doctor Sarah

This is an opportunity for women to experience and practice communication skills together that create the possibility for deep human connection.

Community can be described as, "a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to 'rejoice together, mourn together,' and to 'delight in each other, make each others' conditions [their] own.'" [M. Scot Peck, The Different Drum]

This is a way of being that I believe is inside of everyone. Yet this is also a way of being that is not supported by mainstream culture, and as a result many people do not typically experience or trust making these connections. It involves, among other things, communicating with authenticity, risking vulnerability, having a commitment to 'hang there' when difficulties arise, a tolerance of ambiguity, and a surrender to the unknown. It can also involve coming into a new experience of ourselves in relationship with others. Everyone has their own experience of this work, and in a lot of ways it's better to come with few expectations, so I'll keep this short. For me, this work has had a profound effect on my life and my relationships. I am very excited to be bringing this event to the Olympia Community! Please view the rest of this post and the attached documents for more details. Thanks for reading! Also, please contact me (Catherine) at 360-888-2783 with any questions or for more information about this work.

The 11th Annual Olympia Spiral Dance

Saturday Oct 28th, 2006

Past, Present, Future

Ancestors, Contemporaries, Descendants

Samhain is known as the time of year when the veil is thin between the worlds of the living and the dead. We gather to remember and honor our ancestors; to mourn what is lost in our lives and on the Earth, to honor and celebrate our contemporaries and the spark of new life, and send love and hope to our descendants yet to dance on earth.

Saturday, October 28th, 2006
The Olympia Center at 222 Columbia N.

Doors open at 5:00 pm
Doors close at 6:00 pm

Please plan to arrive on time and stay until the ritual ends (around 9:00).

$10-$20 Donation requested, but no one turned away for lack of funds. Donations help make the spiral happen next year, but you help us make the spiral happen this year!

All altars will be community created. Please bring an altar object or objects for North/Earth, East/Air, South/Fire, West/Water. There will be room on the North altar for photos of the Beloved Dead.

You are welcome to bring finger foods to share after the ritual, please bring your own place setting and cup.

Children who are not disruptive are welcome to attend. If your child might prevent you or others from fully participating, please make child care arrangements.

Please bring a food bank donation.

For more information, go to: olypagans.org. Or, send an e-mail.

have you seen the green monster?

These photos were snapped recently during an extremely dangerous mission to the meta-physically opened "gateway to the other worlds" and it's darkened "delivery" chamber at the Olympia Coffee Roasting/Espresso Parts Conglomo-plex on 4th and Cherry during a daring late afternoon expedition to procure some magical energy beans reported to give anyone who consumes them the strengh of Hercules, and the quick sharp mind of Voltaire.

Reports have been received that the beast springs forth from time to time, along with an enchanted slave who, I'm told, is apparently prone to mumbling "my precious" when skirting closely behind the loud and ravenous beast as it's gaping and whiskered maw feeds on the debris, detritus and offal of the piggish and slovenly inhabitants and visitors to the downtown realm, exhausting flatulent gasses which are rumored to reek of old french fries and fried fish. The beast's overlords have welcomed it's coming, and chant regularly to gaurantee the health and activity of it's life-force and being.

Post your reports (and photos if you are brave enough to take one) here at OlyBlog!! Caiman and Nutria are an issue, but this Monster is of quite another magnitude!!!

I-933 article in The Olympian is worth a read.

N.Y. mogul key to I-933 movement

DAVID CRARY
NEW YORK - He lives in New York City; his name is on no ballot. Yet real estate investor Howard Rich is a key reason why citizens in distant states will be voting Nov. 7 on bitterly contested initiatives that would limit state spending, impose term limits and curb land-use regulation.

Rich is a Libertarian who vigorously champions the cause of limited government. He is the driving force behind a network of groups that has promoted ballot measures in at least 14 states this year.

Several of the campaigns were derailed by legal and signature-gathering problems. But states where Rich-backed measures did make the ballot - often with most of their funding from his network - include Washington, Oregon, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine and Nebraska.

...

"It is unacceptable that the big-money, national anti-government extremists would use our state as a testing ground for their agenda," said Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, warning that approval of the measure would mean cutbacks to education, social services and law enforcement.

Rich, who has not taken up Kulongoski's invitation to debate, said the main foes of spending caps are public-sector unions seeking to preserve their clout.

"The opposition," Rich wrote, "can be characterized as based on greed and self-interest, the public be damned."

...

link: http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/47599.html

"opposition...based on greed and self-interest..." What kind of shadowy delusions occupy this poor man's mind? Opposition based on greed? That's preposterous. Nonsense I tell you!

Take that, "JoshuaCarter."

I was thinking of writing this post for my blog, but I think it will be more relevant here. Someone asked me if I was doing "endorsements" like some other bloggers do and I went off on a rant about how stupid endorsements are, especially if they just come from one person.

So, I'm basically going to do the same thing, tell you how I voted and a short reason why. Also, instead of disagreeing with me in the comment thread, I'm going to suggest that folks do their own list with their own reasons.

So, in no particular order:

Yes on 937. It seems like a short step, a half step even, down a road we should be jogging on.

No on 933. One of the basic assumptions of democracy is that we all follow the same laws. I think this one wouldn't have gotten out of the gate if there had been more civic engagement in rural areas regarding land use.

No on 920. For the same reason we don't have grant titles of nobility in the US, we shouldn't have a monied aristocracy.

Sen. Maria Cantwell. Enron and salmon.

Rep. Brian Baird. Even for Republicans down here, he's a good congressman.

Rep. Sam Hunt and Rep. Brendan Williams. Not even much of a choice here. But, I like these guys too.

County Commissioner Bob Macleod.  I didn't vote for O'Sullivan four years ago, and Macleod hasn't done anything so bad that I'd vote for him now. The commission has its issues, namely public involvement, but I've not liked him since the Deschutes River logjam thing.

PUD commissioner Paul Pickett. This is actually the most exciting local race we had, though no one was really paying attention until a couple weeks ago. The question is whether the PUD should be a regional water supply utility, Pickett is for it, Bud Kerr is against. I'd be interested in seeing the debate on whether such an entity should exist at all. I'm not sold that the PUD should be that entity though.

FOXNews.com

Jeffrey Alan Ingram didn’t know his name or how he had ended up in Denver. So he went on TV and asked if anyone recognized him.

Someone did -- his fiancée, who was back in Olympia, Wash. According to wire reports, the 40-year-old Ingram left his Olympia home on Sept. 6 with plans to visit a friend dying of cancer.

He found himself in Denver on Sept. 10, with no memory. Police there say he ended up at a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a condition called dissociative fugue, a type of amnesia.

Most of us know amnesia from the movies. Someone gets hit on the head and loses his memory. Ingram’s type of amnesia is usually brought on by stress -- a dear friend dying of cancer could perhaps qualify -- but as with typical amnesia, the person loses his or her sense of identity and becomes confused.

With dissociative fugue, they also tend to wander (fugue comes from the Latin word for “flight